by Jonathan Rickert
The Language of Diplomacy: Global and Local
At its heart, diplomacy is all about effective communication. For several centuries, French served as the dominant lingua franca of diplomatic intercourse –- before 1900, in the Western world at least, to be a diplomat usually meant that one was a French speaker. That began to change in the 20th century, with English achieving equal status with French at the Versailles Treaty negotiations. The erosion of French as the principal language of diplomacy continued gradually thereafter, with English becoming predominant only after World War II.
Nevertheless, the diplomatic services of many countries came to recognize the utility of having people skilled in the use of local languages as well. The United States, for example, started to put greater emphasis on the foreign language capabilities of its envoys after World War II and, through the Foreign Service Institute’s School of Language Studies, offers tuition in about 60 of them, although that may be changing under the current administration. The key career officers at more important posts usually have undergone intensive training in the local language.
The Soviet Practice, and the Bulgarian “Sixteenth Republic” Exception
The Soviets also began to stress the importance of having their diplomats skilled in the local language of their countries of assignment. In some cases, Soviet and then Russian diplomats posted to missions, especially in smaller countries, could spend many years serving in or dealing with only one state. In the early 1990s, for example, as deputy chief of mission in Bucharest, I found that my Russian counterpart had been there for 19 years and, not surprisingly, spoke excellent Romanian. Other, mostly larger, countries have sought in various ways to train at least some of their envoys in local languages.
Although the Soviets emphasized language skills for their diplomats to many countries, there was at least one significant exception. In fellow Warsaw Pact ally Bulgaria, the envoys sent out from Moscow apparently received no training in Bulgarian, which is a close Slavic cousin of Russian. This at least was the case for two Soviet diplomats who sought a meeting with me at our embassy late in the 1980s. When our protocol assistant told me of the meeting request, I asked whether or not the diplomats spoke Bulgarian, my own Russian no longer being serviceable. After checking with the Soviet embassy, she replied that they were (or at least claimed to be) Bulgarian speakers.
When the two arrived at our embassy, I addressed them in Bulgarian, but they responded only in Russian—during our time together they spoke not one word of Bulgarian, even though both said that they had lived in the country for a number of years. While we understood each other well enough, I found it odd that they apparently were not conversant in the local language.
US Embassy Sofia. Photo from personal collection of John Beyrle.
When it came time for me and my family to leave still-communist Bulgaria in June 1988, Ambassador Sol Polansky hosted a small “hail and farewell” luncheon for my successor, Bill Montgomery, and me at the Hotal Balkan Sheraton in downtown Sofia. The outside guests were officials from the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry who dealt with our bilateral relations.
After the meal, I found myself off to one side chatting with a couple of younger Bulgarian diplomats. During our conversation, one of them volunteered quietly that he and his Foreign Ministry colleagues had noticed that whenever we met, I always spoke Bulgarian with them. They appreciated the effort on my part, though we both recognized that my command of the language was far from complete. He added that Soviet diplomats spoke only Russian and never conversed with them in Bulgarian. Perhaps the Russians really did consider Bulgaria to be the sixteenth Soviet Republic.
It was the nicest (only?) compliment I ever received from a Bulgarian official and made all the work I had put into trying to learn their difficult language seem worthwhile. Kudos to the Foreign Service Institute and its dedicated language instructors.
Retired Senior Foreign Service officer Jonathan B. Rickert spent over 35 years of his career in London, Moscow, Vienna, Port of Spain, Sofia, and Bucharest (twice), as well as in Washington. His last two overseas assignments were as deputy chief of mission in Bulgaria and Romania. Mr. Rickert holds a B.A. degree in history from Princeton University and an M.A. in international relations from the George Washington University.